Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Guest blogger Lois Winston

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed
Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series featuring magazine crafts
editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault
With a Deadly Glue Gun, the
first book in the series, received starred reviews from both
Publishers Weekly
and Booklist.
Kirkus Reviews
dubbed it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.”
Death By Killer Mop Doll
was released this past January. Revenge
of the Crafty Corpse will
be a January 2013 release.

We
Never Forget Our First Love

For
authors, that first sale is like our first love. No matter how many
sales or lovers we have afterwards, we never really forget our first
one. My first sale occurred in 2005 with the book debuting in April
2006. Talk Gertie To Me
was humorous women’s fiction about Connie Stedworth, a menopausal
mom, attempting to convince her daughter Nori to return home, settle
down with the town’s most eligible bachelor (the son of her best
friend,) and begin producing those grandbabies that would bring
meaning to Connie’s golden years. Nori had other ideas – and an
acerbic imaginary friend named Gertie. The book received critical
acclaim and several awards. And then it went out of print.

Along
the way, I published a romantic suspense, then turned my attention to
writing mysteries. My Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries have been
published since 2011 by Midnight Ink with the third book in the
series, Revenge of the
Crafty Corpse, due out in
January.

But I started out this blog post talking about first
loves and first books and how we never forget either. Well,
apparently, there are also many readers who never forgot Talk
Gertie To Me. Over the
years I’ve been asked countless times if there will ever be a
sequel.

A sequel had never occurred to me. I’d moved on. I
was firmly entrenched in writing mystery. Gertie had other ideas,
though. Once readers asked about a sequel, she latched onto the idea
and wouldn’t let go. She began nagging me the way she nagged Nori
in the original book. And Gertie can be one really persistent nag
until she gets her way.

But besides Gertie’s nagging,
something else occurred: I had received my rights back to Talk
Gertie To Me and launched
it as an ebook. Gertie says this meant the stars were now aligned,
and I couldn’t possibly ignore such a powerful sign.

So one
day I sat down to pen a sequel, but my brain kept spinning mystery
plots. Talk Gertie To Me
was a combination of chick lit and hen lit, two genres that really
aren’t selling right now. I guess my brain was telling me
something. Finally, I listened to it. The result was Elementary,
My Dear Gertie.

In
this mystery novella sequel, Nori and Mac journey to Ten
Commandments, Iowa for a Christmas they won’t soon forget. Connie’s
Christmas gift to them is a cross-stitched pillow with a
none-too-subtle message prodding for marriage and children. Mac
is all for exchanging I do’s. He’s even bought the ring, but
before he can pop the question, an explosion hurls him and Nori right
into the middle of a murder investigation, and Gertie can’t help
but lend her acerbic wit to the twists and turns as yet another
scandal envelopes the not-so-pious residents of Ten Commandments.

Lois, this was a great post! I could almost hear your voice as I read it. I think it's wonderful that you put the characters from TALK GERTIE TO ME in a mystery novella. Love the cover too. Congrats and best wishes with it!

Thanks, Roxy, Jenny, Maegan, and Jill! Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I just got my Internet back this morning after 10 days. I've been spending quite a bit of time camped at my gym or in their parking lot when they're not open, to use their wi-fi. It's so great to be back in the 21st century! However being without electricity and heat for 8 days was a lot worse. I kept thinking about all those early settlers, especially the ones who trekked across the continent in covered wagons. How in the world did they stay warm?